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ABOUT OUR SITE: 43rd State Blues: Democracy for Idaho is a website of, by and for Democrats and those who lean towards Democratic, progressive causes. If you do not fit this broad category, or are simply anti-Democrat, we suggest you find a website more suitable to your ideology. Our house, our rules. Enjoy!

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Serephin's blog

We, the Republican Congressmen and Senators of these here United States of Wealthy America, have shit the governmental bed. We will continue to shit the bed until you give us everything we demand, even if we're not certain what that is. Besides giving in to our outrageous whims, we also demand you allow us to save face by not acknowledging that we have, in point of fact, shit the bed like a pack of over-stuffed baboons with explosive diarrhea. We look forward to your total capitulation. Please excuse us now as we feel the need to gather some of this shit from our bed and fling it at the walls. Never fear -- there's more where that came from.

Sincerely,

Your Motherfucking Insane GOP.

Addendum: Look, there are reasonable Republicans out there but, sadly, not enough to make a difference, and the ones who do exist in Congress are too afraid of their insane base to take the GOP back (see Simpson, Mike). So until the Teabagger whackjobs are locked back into their padded cells, I can only hope President Obama and Congressional Democrats stand their ground and refuse to give in to their lunatic hostage demands.

From a letter we received from Kevin Lish, an insurance agent from Pocatello who signed himself up for the Affordable Care Act on Your Health Idaho's website (http://www.yourhealthidaho.org/):

Affordable Care Act Experience

Saturday (10-12-2013) I was able to get on the Marketplace for Idaho. The website was easy to navigate and I was able to enroll in a new Gold Plan effective January 1, 2014.

My current coverage, which I will cancel December 31, 2013, was $385.00 a month with a $5,000.00 deductible, 80/20 coinsurance with a out of pocket of $10,000.00 which was in addition to my $5,000.00 deductible.

Being self-employed, I did qualify for a subsidy and my new Gold Plan has a $1,000.00 deductible, then 85/15 coinsurance with a new annual out of pocket of $6,350.00.

The great part is, my new monthly premium beginning in January 2014 will be $164.08 a month for my new Affordable Care Act health insurance plan."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why the GOP political machine is melting down like a Hershey bar in a microwave oven. People who, previously, could never get or keep insurance will now be able to do so, and it's become more affordable. Booyah!

Word going around the Gate City today is that Frank VanderSloot, CEO of Melaleuca, Inc. and former national finance co-chair of 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is preparing to expand his corporate and media empire by buying NBC-affiliate KPVI-TV channel 6 in Pocatello, Idaho. KPVI broadcasts throughout Southeast Idaho.

KPVI is currently owned by Intermountain West Communications Company. IWCC's CEO, James Rogers, bought the station in 1996.

VanderSloot's media arm, Riverbend Communications, owns radio stations KLCE, KCVI (Kbear), KTHK (The Hawk), KBLI and KBLY in Eastern Idaho. VanderSloot also owns businesses involved in ranching, land holdings and construction. His net worth has been estimated at more than a billion dollars. read more »

UPDATE 10/25/2012: Sisyphus has a post up above, "It's the Deception, Stupid" that rips into the scheme by Americans for Prosperity as the push poll it really is. You definitely want to check it out.

Americans for Prosperity (a Koch brothers-spawned political outfit) appear to be working with Mitt Romney national finance co-chair Frank VanderSloot's company Melaleuca to recruit Idaho high-school kids in Jefferson and Madison counties to make anti-Obama calls in return for cash. The kids are handing the fliers out to their fellow students at the schools (but who exactly is providing them to the kids in the first place?).

Oh, and if you believe Americans for Prosperity is non-partisan, I have a 50-story office building in Bone, Idaho I'd like to sell you -- cheap!

I respect your passion and dedication to something you believe in so strongly, I only ask that you respect my position, even if you don’t agree with it. I am not pro abortion; I am 60 years old, and fortunately I was never faced with that decision, and if I had been I am not sure what my decision would have been. But I can tell you this, there are instances where I would not have wanted a child.

Rape seems to be discounted so easily; as if it does not happen often and should not be taken into consideration. Incest is another situation where young women of child bearing age are exposed to a potential unwanted pregnancy. Rape does not have to be violent, and done by a stranger, it can be nothing more than you told someone No, and they forced you anyway. But you were afraid of pushing back; he is bigger and stronger then you are and you are afraid. You did not want to do it, you laid there just waiting for it to be over and you would never have to see this person again.

Or you laid there, knowing that this person would do it again and again because he thought your body belonged to him, and you were afraid to leave. There was no love in this act, and any pregnancy that came as a result was not a wanted or loved child. So lets say you got your way and abortion is illegal, do you really think that would stop me from terminating an unwanted fetus? Maybe I am only 15 and my family would kick me out. Maybe my boyfriend abuses me physically and I am afraid of what he will do if he knows I am pregnant because it would be my fault. What are my options? Find a back alley doctor that will used dirty implements to remove this unwanted fetus? So maybe I do carry this child to term; rejected by family, boyfriend and friends; do you think I am eating healthy? Do I have the money to see doctors and take care of myself? Probably not, and when I have this baby, more than likely unhealthy at birth, and certainly not loved or wanted you will send me out on the street to try and take care of ourselves. You can certainly judge me, I should not have had sex outside of marriage; you can try to force your morals and religious beliefs on me, but this is not the Jesus I read about in the Bible. The Jesus and God that I read about is loving and caring and understands that we are human.

And the Republican party is against social programs, so where is my child that you have forced me to have going to be loved, fed, educated and raised in a stable environment. Healthcare will not be available; programs like Head Start will be gone; and I don’t have a high school education, where am I going to find a job? read more »

Idaho State Sen. Chuckles Winder is trying to keep a low profile right now. He did send out an email to his constituents today, where he wrote about legislation he worked on this week. He mentioned Texting While Driving, Homeowners Exemption, the Charter School Cap, Concussions and the new Capitol Parking Garage.

The continuing adventures of major asshole Idaho State Sen. Chuckles Winder and his State Mandated Rape bill against the women of Idaho.

The bill, S1387, may not be dead for certain yet, but it's pining for the fjords. And Senator Chuckles, who up until yesterday was running unopposed for re-election, now has a terrific Democratic candidate by the name of James Mace climbing into the ring to kick Winder's flabby ass all around District 20.

Just before the Idaho's Senate passed the bill, which requires woman to have an ultrasound prior to obtaining an abortion, opponents of the bill pointed out that it makes no exception for rape victims, incest victims or women in medical emergencies.

Winder, a Republican from Boise, responded to those concerns by raising the question of whether women understand when they have been raped.

“Rape and incest was used as a reason to oppose this," Winder said on the Senate floor. "I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that's part of the counseling that goes on.”

Have I mentioned that Chuck Winder is an asshole? He is -- he's an asshole. And not just any run-of-the-mill asshole. Chuck Winder is a grade-A, government-inspected, groundhog's asshole. A 5-star asshole. Asshole Prime.

Senator Michelle Stennett, the Minority Caucus chair gave the longest, and most detailed debate against the bill, at the beginning of the debate, identifying five specific reasons why it would be bad law.

• Ultrasounds are not free. None of the providers prepared to offer "free" services are abortion providers.

• In spite of it not being made explicit, in the case of early pregnancy, the bill would effectively require transvaginal ultrasound.

• The medical emergency provision as written does not apply to the new sections; it lacks a provision for "reasonable, medical judgment."

• It conflicts with the Medical Consent Act, giving adult persons in this state the fundamental right to make their own decisions for their health care.

• It is likely to violate the privacy of patients, in that they would have to sign a statement which will become a public record.

Next time you see Senator "State Rape is good" Winder, be sure to salute him for all the fine work he's done for the women in Idaho.

Robert Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, debunks 6 big Republican lies about The U.S. economy. Reich has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton, and tears apart the bullshit of the wingnuttia in a simple, easy to understand way. Joe Bob sez check it out.

Ed.Note -- This post comes from a Facebook conversation begun by ReggieH, based on information that the conservative billionaire Koch brothers have helped fund those Blue Dog-breeders known as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), nominally an organization that supports "center-right, moderate Democrats." I thought ReggieH put forth such a great description of the DLC's negative effect on the Democratic Party that I asked him for permission to reproduce an edited version of it here at 43SB.

ReggieH: Yes, it is good that they are closing. However, DLC methods should be criticized, and Democrats should recognize the "useful idiot" link inherent to Koch Industries funding of the DLC. It speaks to a structural problem within the Democrats political strategy. read more »

Sons Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch run the company as well as Koch Family Foundations, one of the largest single sources of funding for conservative organizations in the United States. Organizations and think tanks supported by the foundation include Citizens for a Sound Economy, the libertarian Cato Institute, Reason Magazine, the Manhattan Institute, the Heartland Institute, and the Democratic Leadership Council.